Who were the ‘peasants’ of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt? New database has answers

By Adrian R Bell, Chair in the History of Finance and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research, Prosperity and Resilience, Henley Business School, University of Reading
Andrew Prescott, Professor of Digital Humanities, University of Glasgow
Helen Killick, Postdoctoral Research Associate in History, University of Reading
Jason Sadler, Professorial Enterprise Fellow, GeoData Institute, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton

The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was one of the largest and most dramatic popular uprisings in medieval Europe. But what do we really know about this celebrated event in English history?

The rising was the culmination of a wide range of popular grievances against the government of the young King Richard II and his uncle John of Gaunt. The trigger was the levy of a third poll tax in four years to fund the hundred…

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